The Museum of the Strange and Unusual
by Andromeda2050
Summary: (AU of Elegy of the Phoenix). Nyxia and her Queensguard, Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto, traveled too deeply into Steyliff Grove, the dungeon taking them into a world unlike their own. Stumbling across Professor Windlenot's Museum of the Strange and Unusual, their curiosity takes them into a foreign world where dark entities threaten them. Final Fantasy XV/Shivers.
1. The Grounds

The mysterious gate before them seemed to loom like a great set of black, iron teeth over them. While Nyxia felt every fiber of her being screaming at her to turn around, her curiosity compelled her to move onward.

Maybe it was the giant building that resembled a large temple that egged her on.

There was a padlock holding the gate shut. Nyxia may not have been able to use her magic, but it was easy enough for Gladio to kick it beyond function.

"Very curious," Ignis murmured, the last to pass through the gates. His intrigued seemed to heighten as he spotted a letterbox on his right. As he pulled on a chain to open the jaws of the metal, dragon head, a deafening _creeeeeak!_ grabbed everyone else's attention.

Prompto, in particular, was quite startled. "Iggy! Don't do that!"

"My apologies. This letterbox is quite old, it appears." He looked at the ground, having noticed an unopened envelope had fallen at his feet. As he picked it up, he read the front it silently to himself. The others merely waited, eyes wide as they tried to keep their patience.

"Well?" Gladio finally urged, breaking the silence.

"Nothing that seems exceptionally important." He noticed the tense stares on him, then sighed. "You do realize it's illegal to open someone else's mail."

"Yes, Iggy, we get it. You're a saint." Gladio scoffed, grabbing the letter from him. _"Sir Hubert Windlenot, Museum of the Strange and Unusual_." Then, he noticed the address of the sender. Where on earth was London, England?

"Sounds creepy to me. We should go back the way we came," Prompto insisted. He daringly brushed his fingers over the inside of the mailbox, picking up dust that would faintly reveal the number **29** as it was wiped away.

"And miss out on whatever strange and unusual stuff might be in there?" Nyxia said. "Where's your sense of adventure, Prompto?"

She led the way, and though Gladio and Ignis seemed confident as they followed in stride, the young man wielding the camera seemed less so. There was a sign at the entrance to the makeshift temple with name of the museum advertised, though it seemed someone had thrown up some graffiti to manipulate it to "Windlenut". The sign indicated that this entrance was also the way to get into the supposed museum.

Nyxia made her way in first, the set of stairs taking the foursome upward. Even the narrow, brick walls of terracotta color possessed the same, red paint that decorated the sign they had left behind. Then, as they ascended to a fork in the road, they were forced to make a decision.

"Eenie-meenie...?" Prompto said, looking from left to right.

"Should we split?" Gladio asked her, though Nyxia didn't exactly like that idea, especially in a place that was completely foreign to them. Had they been back in Eos, even in a world full of daemons, she might have been a little more accustomed to that suggestion.

"We would cover more ground that way," Ignis also approved.

"Okay, okay..." Nyxia surrendered. Gladiolus followed her through the left path as the other two would take the other route. Again, the stairs would lead them further up the structure, though as they made two rights, they found themselves shortly reuniting with the other pair. "Well, that was a lot less splitting up than I was expecting," she murmured.

"Man, is it good to see you guys," Prompto teased.

As they proceeded forward, they paid little attention to the painted markings on the walls, some of which now were blue, as if applied with spray paint. They didn't seem to make anything that was distinguishable. "The sign we passed suggested this museum was to open soon, but I'm beginning to suspect it may be long forgotten," Ignis said.

They came to a metal door, and as Nyxia jiggled at the handle, she came to the conclusion that it was locked. Before she had noticed there was a button on the right, Prompto was already pressing it. She had initially thought it may have been a doorbell, but then, a recorded voice of a man spoke.

 _"Welcome to Professor Windlenot's Museum of the Strange and Unusual. Unfortunately, the museum is still preparing exhibits and hopes you will visit when we open sometime in the near future."_

"Woah, check it out, guys."

By now, with camera in hand, Prompto was already at the edge of the stairway. From the top, the gate was in clear view, and the forest beyond them seemed faint and dark, swallowed by the night. It made for an eerie, yet very good photo. Ignis was too occupied making a note of the curious symbols above the doors.

"What's that, Ignis?" Nyxia asked.

"Uncertain," he said, "but that is the second, curious symbol I've spotted. I am interested to learn what they mean." He had drawn them onto a small notepad, though Prompto took it upon himself to take pictures with his camera instead.

"Maybe if we find a way inside, we can figure it out," Gladio said. As they all headed back down the stairs, they would turn right, taking them further away from the gate. In the distance, the hooting of an owl could be heard from the trees. It was probably the most familiarity they had come across so far.

As they passed by a tall, stone monument, Prompto took a shot of it, as well as the green symbol on the ground behind it that resembled a wheel. They passed under a stone arch, the paved path taking them towards what appeared to be a gazebo. In the center of it was an old, metal box, on top of which seemed to be six circles painted onto it in a group. Beneath it were three, numerical switches and a red button.

"It's a three-digit code," Gladio said.

"Do you think maybe it might be the address, or whatever that number on the letterbox was?" Nyxia suggested. Ignis attempted it, keying in **029** , and as he pressed the red button, the box seemed to respond, opening up to reveal six gears - three black, three white.

"Hey, nice work." Instead of replying to Gladio's praise, however, the redhead was now trying to determine how the insides were supposed to work. However, Ignis was already pulling the gears out to put them in a particular place. The white ones were placed on the top row, black gears directly beneath them.

Suddenly, a sound emerged from behind them that sounded like shifting stone. "W-what was that?" Prompto panicked, stepping backwards out of the structure. To the left of the gazebo, stone slabs had risen from the pond, serving as a pathway to take them further. Carefully, they would cross the stones to reach what would be a small island, curious structures of rock displayed in a circle unlike anything they had seen before. On the ground and in the center was what appeared to be another puzzle.

"Hey, we've seen some of these symbols," Prompto said, kneeling down to the painted triangles. However, as he touched one of them, it changed color, as if by magic. Instantly, he seemed to understand. "Oh, oh, wait! I get it." The other three would watch as he fiddled with the puzzle, almost in amazement. He always did have a keen eye to detail. However, it seemed he only knew three out of six of the symbols.

"There's a white one, this ugly color, and a wood-grain-looking one."

"Hey," Gladio said, pointing to the distance. "There's one." Prompto took this into account, left with two that he couldn't be sure of. He resorted to guesswork, and after a few more moments, there was a noise coming from beneath the ground - something that suggested he move away. Prompto backed up quickly, and the four of them watched as a pathway descended into darkness.

"Uh...that looks really sinister," Nyxia murmured, eyeing the spiraling stairs. "Do we have to go down this way?"

"If we don't, I would have done all of that for nothing, man!" Prompto complained.

"You got mad skills, I'll give you that," she appeased him. "Okay, let's...do this."


	2. The Underground Passage

With the flashlight on her smartphone to show the way, Nyxia was the first to descend into the underground passage. With no railing on the spiraling stairs, she was a bit fearful of falling into whatever blackness was below. However, as a door was spotted just a little further down, this soon became a voided worry. She opened the heavy door, once again greeted with a shadowy room that she couldn't see more than a foot into. Thankfully, she was able to use the flashlight to locate a panel on the left wall. Once she pulled the switch, the power roared to life before revealing a long, murky tunnel stretching out ahead of them.

"Do you suppose this leads into the museum?" Nyxia asked, and though she was given no immediate answer, she was already moving ahead of the others.

"I guess there's only one way to find out," Gladiolus said as he followed close behind. They walked a little ways, taking a couple of turns. The air felt cooler the further they went in, as if they were on the descent to hell. As before, they would come to a fork in the road, paths once again branching off to the left and right.

"Maybe we shouldn't split up this time?" Prompto assumed. "I feel like we should have learned that from earlier."

"I guess."

"Where to, Xia?"

"I vote left," Nyxia said. Both passages looked to be mirror images of each other, seemingly unending and lined with pipes on the ceiling. They kept clustered as they continued onward, following the damp corridor around another few bends before they would come to a second intersection. They would keep left, which would have been the sorceress's strategy in any maze-situation. Keep to the left wall. Eventually, you'll find an exit, right?

And, as she had hoped, they came across a new door - one with a small grating that appeared to peer into an underground lake. Ahead of them was a small boat, and it seemed to be conveniently placed as though it was waiting for them.

Nyxia felt a chill in the air - one unlike what she had been feeling as they had been following the tunnels. Something felt wrong in this room, and it screamed at her to turn around and call it quits. Yet, at the same time, she couldn't hold back her curiosity.

"Intriguing," Ignis said, his voice giving off a brief echo in the spacious chamber. He was looking at the hieroglyphics that were on the wall around the door they had just come through. On either side of the barrier was a bird, both surrounded by more symbols that none of them could recognize.

"What do you think it all means?" Nyxia asked.

"I wonder if this may be a display of either religious or ethnic symbolism. We should press on."

"Hey, I think I got the boat working!" Prompto chimed in, having already been aboard the boat.

"Before you jump ahead of yourself... Look."

All eyes followed Gladio's pointing finger past the front of the boat. Further down the darkened path appeared to be a figure on the ground, unmoving. Upon closer inspection, it was most certainly a decaying body.

"Shit," Nyxia stepped back, putting a hand to her mouth and nose. The smell was horrid. She had seen death, but never did she have to smell something like this.

"It looks like it's been a few years," Gladio said, seeming rather calm about their finding. "He kind of looks like the guy on the sign for the museum."

"You think he might be the professor, then?" Nyxia asked through her palm, her voice slightly muffled. She also noticed that on the dirt beside him, a symbol had been drawn that she could only describe looked like a snail's shell.

"I changed my mind!" Prompto yelled from the boat. "This was a bad idea."

"Just a moment."

Ignis, also rather collected, picked up a book that the corpse had been clutching to its chest. On the front of the leather cover was etched _Egyptian Hieroglyphs Explained. Once again, the others watched as Ignis would scan the book for any useful information. Aside from the flipping of pages, the only other thing that could be heard were occasional droplets hitting the water's surface. As he sounded a "hmm", he closed up the book, and it seemed he intended to hang onto it._

"Anything good?" Gladio asked.

"Some of these symbols describe a culture unlike ours. Egyptian, apparently."

"Are we even in Eos anymore?" Nyxia asked.

"Likely not, though why Steyliff Grove would pull us into another dimension entirely, I can't be sure."

As they boarded the boat and pressed on, Prompto was the one to steer towards the other side of the chamber. It was about half across the lake that Nyxia felt another, uncomfortable chill in her body. She absently was grabbing onto Gladio's sleeveless jacket as the boat moved, causing him to look at her in concern.

"What is it?" he muttered, placing a hand on the small of her back.

"I...I don't know," she answered quietly. "Something doesn't feel right."

There was a flash of blue, followed by a monstrous hiss that revealed the source of Nyxia's fear. She didn't know what it was, just that it had red eyes, and it came out of the water and lashed at Prompto before disappearing in a black mist. He yelled loudly as he fell backwards into the boat. Ignis carefully knelt down beside him. "Are you alright?"

"What the hell was that thing!?" Prompto demanded in a panic.

Meanwhile, Gladio was trying to summon his sword...and somehow, nothing seemed to be happening.

"Wherever we are, maybe this world has its own daemons," Nyxia said, turning the lever to get them to the shore on the other side. She was still not entirely sure of what she just saw, only that it was no friend to them.

As they climbed out of the boat, Prompto still seemed a bit disoriented, requiring Ignis's assistance to get him onto solid ground again. Once they did, Nyxia spotted a peculiar jar that was sitting on the ground, seeming oddly out of place in this damp room. She knelt down, something compelling her to open it. As she did, a wispy shape swept from its confines, clearly taking form of what had to be a spirit of some kind.

 _"So many long years in this...prison."_ The spirit clearly belonged to the dead man they had seen on the other side of the water. _"You all need to get out. Do not meddle in things beyond your understanding. You will pay for your curiosity! You are in grave danger..."_

"What are they?" Gladio demanded, but it seemed as if the professor's spirit hadn't heard him, and he now seemed to be addressing Prompto.

 _"The Ixupi are so evil, and they've taken some of your life essence. It is imperative to find all of the vessels, because it seems only when they are united with their talismans do they have any power. My plan was to use them on the Ixupi before any more of them escaped into the world. I believe they cannot resist the vessels as long as they're with the talismans and you approach directly. This vessel here is of no use to you. Its Ixupi is the one who robbed me of my essence. It has escaped into the world... And they have ruined my museum!"_

Before any questions could be asked, the spirit disappeared into the pot again, as if unable to project itself for any longer. Perhaps that was all they needed to know, for the time being. Nyxia knew then that this was likely the point of no return. Prompto, who seemed to have gathered himself together by now, cleared his throat.

"So, we need a jar and a talisman to trap that thing. No biggie."

"No biggie?" Gladiolus repeated. "It came out of nowhere." He paused, looking back to the girl. "Nyxia, you said something didn't feel right, and that Ixupi came out of the water. Maybe we can avoid these things until we have what we need to imprison them."

"You're saying we should keep moving, then?" she asked hesitantly. It wasn't that she was scared, though this whole situation of the unknown did freak her out. Seeing Prompto get attacked by something so unfamiliar unnerved her, and she didn't want to see any more of her friends get hurt again.

"We've been through worse scuffles, but..." Gladio drifted, looking over at the other two. They nodded, confident about pressing on. "It's up to you, Nyxia."

She took in a breath, then exhaled. "Okay. But if we die, don't blame it on me."

"That's alright. We'll just terrorize you as ghosts."

"Gladio," she pouted as they walked down another hallway, "that isn't funny."


	3. The Library

As the corridor would narrow in and lead them down a singular path, it felt like a long trek before they would finally appear at another door - a set of doors that appeared as if they might lead into an elevator shaft. However, there was no obvious button. There was, however, a camera that seemed to be functioning in the left corner above the doors.

"That's not creepy," Prompto muttered sarcastically. Ignis located a panel on the left wall, which seemed to demonstrate another puzzle that, if solved correctly, would allow them to progress.

"This professor guy really likes his puzzles," Nyxia stated, watching as Ignis would push arrow buttons on the left and top of the panel. Then, suddenly, a _ding!_ sounded, and the doors parted to let them inside.

"A security measure, no doubt," Ignis said as they stepped in. The only direction to go was up, and so as he pushed the up-arrow button, they waited as the box would ascend. "How are you feeling, Prompto?"

"I'm okay," he said. "The guy said it took some of my essence? Do you think maybe that's why I might feel a little tired?"

"Prompto, you're always tired," Nyxia murmured.

"Yeah."

The elevator came to a stop, and as the doors opened, the group found themselves in what appeared to be an office. As soon as she stepped onto the carpet, Nyxia felt that unsettling shiver in her body again. While the room seemed to be completely ordinary, save for the chair being toppled over, she was willing to bet one of those Ixupi was hiding somewhere.

"I bet we'll find some information in here," Gladio said, observing the desk that was cluttered in papers, some of which were tucked beneath a tape recorder. He pressed a button, and the device erupted with a familiar voice belonging to Professor Windlenot. "There's our guy."

As the recording described that the professor had returned to find his study was invaded by _someone_ , and that he found the furniture toppled over, Ignis was examining a strange map on the wall with a note pinned to it, and specific coordinates were marked upon it, labeled as "must explore" in a red marker. The professor also explained the Egyptian hieroglyphs book was on the floor with a page ripped out of it, indicating it was not as he had left it. "1980? Did I hear that right?"

"Thirty-seven years ago." Gladio said, though his voice was quiet so as not to talk over the recording. He had discovered the Ixupi escaped their jars somehow - whoever broke into the museum must have let them out, and a name _Merrick_ had been mentioned, found on some paper as possible evidence. However, uneasiness filled the office as the professor's screams of terror emitted from the box, followed by demonic growls of his attacker.

 _"I wish I'd never brought you here!"_ appeared to have been his final words.

"Sucks to be that guy," Prompto said as the tape fell into silence.

"Professor Windlenot brought these dangerous creatures to his museum," Ignis said. "No doubt, they were intended to be an exhibit. This would explain why the museum never opened. But if he died in 1980, how is it the corpse isn't fully decomposed?"

"Beats me. Looks like he had a son, though," Gladio shrugged, flipping through a scrapbook on the desk. "And according to some of these notes, he might not have been totally sane, so his wife wanted to cut him off because he was spinning stories about myths. Looks like he chose the museum over his own family." As he opened another drawer, he pulled out what appeared to be a ceramic, bull head, though it seemed to be missing a part to it, as if it were a lid...

"The fireplace..." Nyxia finally murmured. "There's something in there." She was staring at the ash-filled hearth as she clearly made an effort to keep away from it.

"You think it's another one of those things?" Prompto asked, his voice shaking a bit.

"I wouldn't doubt it. Come on, let's get out of here." Nyxia ushered them through a door on the left, and they entered what appeared to be a giant hall - likely designed to be the main hall of the museum.

"I bet this place would have been really neat, if it did open." Prompto looked around, spotting an array of five, bird heads on the wall that appeared to be made of wood. It only took him a moment to realize they actually opened up, and inside one of them was a hidden jar with a peculiar symbol on it.

"The exhibits are still intact. It may be worth taking a look at," Ignis said.

"Hey, I think I found one of those pots!"

Gladio looked at Prompto's jar, then at the talisman that he had found in the desk. "There might be something somewhere that tells us which ones pair up. He did specify on the tape that he needed to match the right ones."

"Anyone wondering how they got scattered throughout the museum in the first place?" Prompto asked.

"I'd be willing to bet the Ixupi did it. They probably know the vessels can be used to trap them, so they make it hard."

"So, where do we start looking?"

Ignis, who was few for words, was observing a panel on a large set of doors. It looked like another puzzle - one that was very intricate. "Prompto, you can start by helping me with this," he said, holding up the book he had been carrying around. "I think I may know how to solve this, but it will take some time."

Nyxia walked over to another door - one that appeared to be unlocked. As she opened it, it revealed a library. This was probably the best place to find something useful on the vessels. Disappearing into the room, she kept the door ajar behind her. The first thing she noticed was a book stand on the far side of the room, with the words of a familiar, book title engraved into the wood. This was where the hieroglyphs book was meant to be kept. There were many other shelves with numerous books, as well as a sliding ladder to reach the higher shelves. She scanned the spines of the books, hoping to find something that might stand out to her.

She spotted a book that was laying down on the shelf - and she had been about to set it upright until she saw a curious symbol on the front cover. It was the same one etched into the ground by the professor's dead body. Curious, she opened it up, skimming briefly through what appeared to be the myth behind the Ixupi and how they were released onto the world. They were also described as the Snake God's children, and each Ixupi was designated an element - water, fire, tar, wood, and so on. Each jar consisted of this element, and the correct combination would lock the Ixupi away in the jar. They were hidden deep within the earth, lest they be released onto the world again, but it seemed a particular professor had gotten in the way of that during one of his expeditions.

Next to the book she found was a bright, yellow book that also seemed to stand out: South American Pictographs. Within it were pictures of the different symbols used on the jars, and which elements they represented. Nyxia felt inclined to take this with her, though before she could close the book, she felt a tickle of breath against her neck.

She must have jumped ten feet in the air, but as she quickly realized it had been Gladio sneaking up on her, she slapped his buff arm with the book. "Don't do that!" she scowled.

"I couldn't resist," he teased somewhat huskily.

"This is important business, Gladio. No time to mess around."

"Not just a little bit?" he offered, and as he backed her up into the side of the table in the middle of the room, Nyxia felt her resolve weaken a bit. She hadn't really been alone with Gladio for a few days now. They had been so occupied running errands in Eos, and now this... She smiled, letting him have his moment in teasing her.

"Maybe just a little bit," she succumbed, sinking back slightly as he would kiss her eagerly. Momentarily forgetting their mission here, she felt her body being pulled up onto the table. It always seemed hard for the two of them to keep their hands off of each other, at least when they were alone.

Yet, there came a shudder. As she paused, she realized it wasn't the good kind, either. Her eyes shifted towards the left, where a tall candelabra felt like it was emanating another evil spirit. "Maybe now's not a good time," she muttered. Gladio followed her uneasy gaze, though he seemed reluctant to remove himself from against her. As he turned around, Nyxia's eyes caught something behind him that she was surprised she hadn't noticed before. There was a small gap in the bookshelves - something that appeared to be a secret passageway. "What's that?"

She followed him inside, and they found themselves in what appeared to be a rounded hallway. For some reason, she felt like they shouldn't be here, but as she looked down, she saw something that appeared to be a card on the floor. It appeared to be photo identification of a Beth Nelson, dated between 1980 and 1981, and it had her high school name on it. It didn't seem important, though it's peculiar location on the floor had her curious. Further down the hallway, she picked up a handwritten note - something else that didn't look critical. Around the bend was a short set of descending stairs, and at the bottom, a lone, black purse.

As she examined its contents, primarily just an address book, she heard Gladio's footsteps behind her. "This has been here for a long time," she said, wiping dust from the leather covering of the sack before she would throw the strap around her shoulder.

"Whoever's it is, I think they're long gone."

"Might be Beth's," Nyxia concluded. She wondered if maybe Beth was one of those who broke into the museum. "We'll put it back in the library for now."

"What's down there?" Gladio asked, gesturing to the stairs that continued down. Nyxia wasn't exactly feeling inclined to keep going, but with her Shield close, she supposed it couldn't be so bad. It was just...creepy.

As they explored the tunnel, they eventually reached a door - one labeled as the power plant. It didn't seem particularly necessary to check it out, as the power was already on in the museum, and so they turned back. On the way, however, Gladiolus had noticed an elevator past the entrance they had come through, and it seemed to be guarded by yet another puzzle.

"How the hell did Ignis figure this thing out?" he grumbled, taking literally only three seconds to fumble with the panel before he gave up.

"I don't know. We could go back and let them know what we found."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's go."


	4. The Mysteries of the Deep

As they came back into the lobby, they found that the door Ignis and Prompto had been working on was opened, and the pair was nowhere to be found. Deciding to go through to try and locate them, they entered what appeared to be an auditorium - one with a large number of purple chairs lined up on either side of the center aisle. They didn't seem to be anywhere in sight here, either.

"Iggy?" Gladio called out. "Prompto?"

They walked towards the stage, and around the left side appeared to be a passageway leading around the back. As they came around the corner, they stopped at a fork - the path on the left led to a set of stairs, and the door at the top was opened. To the right was another door, also open.

Gladio checked the stairs, though was quick to turn around after he glanced into the room beyond. "Nothing here. Just seems to be a projection room."

They went through the door, following a set of stone stairs that would spiral upward. As they came across the room at the top, Nyxia was relieved to see the others as they appeared to be hovering over an array of monitors. "There you are," she sighed in relief.

"We saw you guys!" Prompto said almost excitedly. "We saw you here." He pointed at one of the screens on the right side of the table, and she was quick to recognize it as the hidden passageway behind the bookshelf.

"Yeah, we found an elevator, but we couldn't figure out the stupid puzzle," she said.

"The icons must be placed diagonally. It's not as simple as it sounds, though." Ignis said. "And did you find a purse while you were down there?"

"I did, now that you mention it. Why?"

Ignis pushed a button beneath the monitor, showing what appeared to be a recording of a girl dropping the familiar pouch as she was running through the corridor.

"That's Beth," Nyxia murmured thoughtfully. "I wonder what happened."

Ignis pulled himself out of the chair, then gestured towards something on the ground by the window. "We found something interesting, as well."

"The same girl's ghost was in that pot. She said the markings on them are important." Well, that solved the mystery of what happened to Beth Nelson.

"Oh! The book I found... it's in the library, but it says they resemble elements. There's a very specific combination in how the pots and lids go together. Each spirit is bound to a certain element."

"Ah, of course," Ignis said thoughtfully. "Then, the one bound to water must have been what attacked Prompto."

"We need to get that book, then." Ignis and Prompto also seemed to have found a a couple of pots, though once again, none that seemed to match with what they already had. As the four of them made their way back out to the lobby, Ignis mentioned a video clip they saw on the projector screen - one that appeared to document the professor's finding in a secret passage in another country. He had also found a note on the stage podium that was shared between Beth and who they discovered was a boy named Merrick. As he showed it to Nyxia, she felt her stomach turn.

 _Beth!_

 _Meet me upstairs where we found the pots!_

 _\- M._

Below it was different handwriting, which belonged to the girl.

 _No! Don't go up there! Those things are everywhere. Basement powerplant. I_ _think_ _it's safe._

"Something tells me the power plant wasn't safe," Nyxia murmured in discomfort. Relieved they hadn't made it that far, Nyxia handed the sheet of paper back to Ignis. Once they returned to the library, she showed him what she had discovered, though it felt as if the Ixupi of wax seemed to have left the room by now. Thank goodness.

As Ignis skimmed through the books, Prompto remained out in the lobby, peeking through the other doors they had yet to explore. "This place must be huge," he said. "How many of these things do we need to catch?"

The others were just coming out of the library as he made the inquiry. "It appears there are ten Ixupi. And so far, we have found no match. I suggest we keep the pieces we find in the library until we come across more."

With four, separate pieces sitting on the table, they continued on to one of the doors they had not already passed through, wanting to cover the whole floor before they would go up. The next room they entered consisted of large figurines of various animals - dinosaurs, bird-eating spiders (which evidently gave Prompto the chills), a unicorn, and a griffin.

"That's interesting. It says on this plaque that the griffin is extinct."

"Not in our world, it isn't," Gladio huffed. "These people would probably be amazed if they saw what we did on a regular basis."

 _"From a sixty-foot giant squid that can pull a small fishing boat into the depths of the sea, to the two-inch poison dart frog that carries enough poison to kill 1,500 people."_

Again, Prompto was pushing buttons on random, though the man's voice that protruded was more informative than anything. _"Nothing is stranger than the animal kingdom. Is it any wonder that the Ancients worshiped and feared these strange beasts?"_

"Sounds like home," Nyxia murmured. "Although I think I might take the two-inch frogs over cactuars any day. They sound cute."

"Not if they shoot poison darts!" Prompto insisted, walking towards one of the other doors.

"There's two different doors," Gladio said. "Think we should split up again?" Nyxia felt him subtly nudge her in the back, and she restrained a snicker.

Prompto approached a set of green doors on the left side of the room, which was closest to the griffin display. "This looks kind of cool," he said, noting the elaborate, vine-like pattern on the door. "It probably sucks inside, though."

As he and Ignis went through the next room, Nyxia and Gladio would follow the other door into a descent of stairs. The first thing she had spotted was a large map that was painted along the floor. It seemed to represent a subterranean world, and Nyxia was keen on learning about the exhibits, even if that wasn't their main objective.

Their gods of worship weren't but so different from the Hexatheon. They had their own god of the seas, which apparently was named Poseidon. Another exhibit talked about one of the seas inhabitants - a siren that would lure men to drown to their deaths. There was even a song that played on the push of a button, haunting, yet beautiful in its own way.

"Maybe a lot of people seemed to think this guy was a total nutcase," Gladio said, looking around on another side of the room, "but only a genius could put all of this shit together."

"No kidding," Nyxia murmured. Behind her, she noticed, was an organ, though it was quite different from any mechanism she had seen before. Instead of keys, closing the clam shells emitted a particular note. As she messed with the notes, she found herself trying to play the siren's song she had heard just moments before. Thankfully, she was musically inclined, having played with cellos for so long...

Suddenly, a giant, stone door in the shape of a face opened up, and it just about scared the hell out of her when it done. Her heart raced for a moment, not having expected that just messing around with the instrument would actually open up another, secret passage.

"This museum is full of surprises, ain't it?" Gladio said, approaching the newly opened passageway.

"Should we go in?" Nyxia asked, though as she took a look at the descending, stony stairs, she felt a little too intimidated to say that would be a good idea.

"Let's wait for the other two," he said, and Nyxia sighed in relief.

Again, she was about scared out of her wits when she heard the voiceover. _"You are now entering the unfathomable depths of the sea, where countless ships have sunk, taking with them untold the riches..."_

 _"Prompto!"_ Nyxia shrieked. "Stop that!"

"Sorry!"

"I'll tell you what... this place totally gives me the chills, and it's not just the Ixupi."

It didn't exactly help that their weapons would do them no good here. They would have to use their wit just to survive.


End file.
